University of Kentucky Football Media Conference
Saturday, September 15 2018
Mark Stoops
COACH STOOPS: Today was Heroes’ Day. I’d like to thank the military and all of our first responders for all that they do.
I was pleased with our effort today. Obviously, there’s a lot of good things out there. You could see the strength of our team and our depth.
Obviously, you know, it’s going to pay off when you face a team like Murray. I really credit Murray, for their coaching, the way they played. They’re a quality football team, they played exceptionally hard.
I just thought with our strength and experience and depth, it wore them down. They really did a good job, and they’re well coached.
Pleased with our team. I really thought we had a good week of practice last week. There’s obviously things you’ve got to work on, and that’s why we play. The experience really helps, and we’re going to get better with every opportunity.
We like the position we’re in, being 3-0 at this point, and we’re excited to get back to work this week for a big game coming up and appreciate, you know — I thought it was really nice to see a lot of our kids play.
I think the last defensive — the last group in there, other than one — I think Tymere (Dubose) was in there for a few plays. But at one point, there were ten freshmen out there, either red shirt or true freshmen. And saw some really good plays and some things — they gave up a few yards there late. But overall, really good effort. Appreciate the team’s effort, and ready to move forward.
Q. Mark, in those late situations, how do you gauge the the new redshirt rule so early in the year, using the game for some of those guys …
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, we thought we’d use it for a bunch of those guys just to get them some reps and get them in there. There will be a good dose of those freshmen that we will hold and use in emergency situations now. At least they got their first reps in game play, got a few snaps. Some of them played quite a few. So we’ll gauge it as we move forward.
Q. Mark, you were 5-for-5 in red zone opportunities, a couple of field goals on top of that. How do you feel about that aspect of the game?
COACH STOOPS: It was good to get field goals. Obviously, we’re looking for touchdowns, but it was good to get Miles (Butler) some kicks, and it was nice for him to put it through.
We did a good job once we got the ball moving. There was a few drives there, we’d like to get a few plays over and do a better job. But, you know, I think that’s where the physicality shows up when you get in the red zone.
Q. Mark, how did you evaluate Terry (Wilson)’s performance?
COACH STOOPS: From watching it out there, obviously he made some big plays again with his legs. We have to look at some things. I know early on, there was a few assignments that — again, it will fall on the receivers. A few releases and a few of the little things, the little things that add up.
I know a couple of those pop out at me. Again, it’s always difficult to put it all on the quarterback’s shoulders all the time. But you could see he was very dynamic when he pulled the ball down.
I’ve been there. As a defensive coach, it will break your back. It’s frustrating. I’m glad he’s doing that for us.
Q. What did you see on that Zy’Aire Hughes’ play?
COACH STOOPS: Well, he was over there hunting them down. I said, Zy’Aire, come on, we’re going to give it to him, you know, so be ready to dial it up for him.
He said, “Thanks, Coach” after that. I said, well, you knew what to do with it once you got the ball, that’s for sure. He knew how to take it to the end zone. Zy’Aire has great speed. He’s a great kid.
That’s what I just told the team. I mean, there are so many guys that work hard. We are deeper than we’ve ever been. Guys, you know, want to play, and the frustration set in at times.
This is a great football team. They’re very united, but, you know, they still want to play. And they got to know, you know, we’re going to need every one of them to stay the course and to help us get to where we want to go.
But it’s good for guys like that, for Zy’Aire, who’s been working hard, to see him get it in the end zone.
Good for the, you know, for the quarterbacks to play as well. Gunnar (Hoak), you know, we wanted to throw it — normally, we try to run out the clock there, but we wanted to get him some reps and some throws. He did a very good job. It was good for Danny (Clark) to get in there and get a few reps, get a touchdown there.
Q. [Question regarding the touchdown play to Allen Dailey Jr.]
COACH STOOPS: Allen is a good football player. We really got to look hard at getting him some more reps, because he’s a player.
He just has that — he has a toughness and work ethic, and he’s got instincts, and I really like him. He’s to get in there some more.
Q. Lynn Bowden had eight catches today for 89 yards and then had a good performance last week, is he starting to become that player you guys thought he could be?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah, you know, there was some opportunity there. So when you dial some up where he has a good opportunity to get catches, and then you have some of the automatics, the way they’re playing, they throw the bubbles so he gets some there as well. But yeah, he’s doing some really good things. He’s practicing hard. He’s getting better with every opportunity.
Q. When you have 10 newcomers in there and then Tymere, what is going through your head?
COACH STOOPS: I took the headset off on the last drive.(Laughter.)
I said I’m going to enjoy it. I’m just going to get try to get a little stress-free few minutes here. Normally, I do get aggravated. That’s why I had to get off the headset just because, you know, we do. We try to instill in all the players, we take pride in playing the game the right way.
We talked about that all week and, you know, playing to our standards. And everybody that gets in there, we want them to execute and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, have respect for the game. They did that. They played hard.
Just give Murray credit. They scrambled and made some plays and, you know, so our guys were playing hard.
Q. You guys had a three and out in the first half and then had three in a row in the second half. Did you say something to them at halftime?
COACH STOOPS: I thought that was big. I don’t think they had but a few yards in the third quarter. I thought it was good for our defense to come out and set the tone in the second half.
Just the normal protocol. We came in, made adjustments, talked about some things they were doing. Late in the first half, they had a few things on us we talked about. They played hard, executed in the second half.
Q. You wanted that clean game, how clean do you think it was?
COACH STOOPS: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want to be quoted on that. I think there were some really good things, and there were some things that we obviously can do better.
You know, we do that no matter what. We always look at the things that we can sustain, the good things that we’re doing, and look at the things that we want to improve on and try to focus on them here for this next week.
Q. Mark, you said you had a good week of practice, took care of business today. Coming off a big win where people say, oh, are they going to have a letdown, how are they going to handle prosperity, does that tell you anything about your team?
COACH STOOPS: It does, and there are things that we could have done better to start. But it does show the team and the strength of the team and just, you know, one play at a time.
Sometimes when — you know, you can’t make it happen, you know, with any one play. We have to take it one step at a time. I always caution that in games that you want to go out and put it away in the first drive, and that doesn’t happen, you know. So there’s always things to learn from.
Q. Do you expect to have Quinton Bohanna healthy next week?
COACH STOOPS: I do. I do. He’s been close and, you know, I do expect to have him back, yeah.
Q. Mark, what did you think about the play of (Jordan) Wright, (Jamin) Davis and (Marquan) McCall? When you had those guys in there, what did you think of them specifically?
COACH STOOPS: You know, I have to look at the film and see. But it looked — you know, definitely, Marquan shows up a lot. And Jordan, I think he had a good rush or two. He’s talented. It’s good to get his feet wet, get him in there. He’s one of the guys that we’d like to get him some reps and get him moving.
From what I could tell, from the naked eye, looked like they did some good things.
Q. Mark, you talk about getting them in. How much does it help just to get them on film, even for just a few reps?
COACH STOOPS: I think it does. I think it really helps. There’s no replacing game reps. And, you know, we have, you know, a few seniors on this team and so we’ve got to get some guys ready to go for the future as well.
So we got to get them some experience and get them playing and, you know, we got some talent there.
Q. Coach, what does Patrick Henschen need to do to make more of an impact at this point?
COACH STOOPS: Pardon me?
Q. Patrick Henschen …
COACH STOOPS: What is it? I’m saying what does he need to do? Just like everybody that’s playing, just continue to stay the course.
There’s a lot of guys in that locker room that want to play, and there’s a lot of talented players in there that work hard.
That’s what I just told the team is how much I appreciated every one of them because they all want theirs, and they deserve theirs. But nothing is promised. You know, everything is going to be earned, and he’s no different.
Q. I want to ask about the first or second series Gunnar had; four plays, 80 yards. What did you see that you liked there?
COACH STOOPS: You know, he threw the ball, and we caught it. You know, that’s one thing. But I think he’d be the first one to tell you, you know, that it looked — I couldn’t tell, looked like one or two got away from him.
So, again, just experience and just playing. And obviously, he had good protection, he hit the open guy, made some big plays.
Q. What does it do for the program, when you guys are heading into these critical SEC games in the next few weeks, to be 3-0 instead of, say, 2-1?
COACH STOOPS: You know, just we’re pleased with where we’re at and, you know, we’re excited to get back to work here for this week. We really are. It’s going to be a great opportunity, and we’ll be excited and ready.
Q. This is your all’s biggest win since you beat UNC Charlotte a few years ago … Having such a big blow-out, what does that say about the program?
COACH STOOPS: I think just depth. I think depth. Again, we have some good, young players that when they get in there, they want to play so they run the ball hard and they block and catch it and so on.
So, you know, I felt like — I don’t know how many guys we played today, but quite a few, and that’s good because we don’t get those opportunities a lot.
And it’s also good for, you know, our guys that are starters to maybe, you know, get a quarter or two off and get rested up and get ready to play here this week.
Thank you.
UK Student-Athletes
#33, David Bouvier, WR
On getting a “spark” on offence…
“You never want to get plays called back, but you just have to move onto the next one. As long as we win, I don’t care. I don’t care what my stats are.”
On the halftime score…
“It was all player led, Kash (Daniel) and (Derrick) Baity, they stepped up and said, ‘guys we’re a lot better than this,’ and they got us focused to come out stronger in the second half.”
On big plays putting things in motion…
“No matter what game, yes. I knew once Fish (Zy’Aire Hughes) got to the second level he was gone. That man is too fast. When we have big plays like the ones last week, it kills the defensive momentum and it’s great for the offense.”
#1, Lynn Bowden, Jr., WR
On how great of a QB Terry (Wilson) is…
“Fast, and great on the ground and in the air.”
On how Terry’s (Wilson) day was…
“I just told Terry we’re going to play this game. Trust me, give me a chance and I will make you look good.”
On the team’s mindset…
“We expect to win every game. On my part, I want to be the best person I can.”
#13, Zy’Aire Hughes, WR
On expecting touchdown plays…
“Yeah, I was expecting it. We’ve been practicing all week. It’s actually called “12 Fish” and it’s a play designed for me to get a reverse and basically score. The whole time I’m thinking that I would score, but to me the play is just a reverse to get yardage off of, but I wanted to score.”
On what you saw during the play…
“They say get as wide as possible, but the way our receivers were blocking I saw a hole and that left me no choice but to cut it up and run for the touchdown.”
On limited opportunities due to large amount of receivers…
“Honestly, it’s not, well for me because I know what I’m capable of. If I get in, I know I’ll do something with the ball and with my opportunity. So, it’s not really frustrating, it’s actually kind of good as long as we’re winning.”
#26, Benny Snell, RB
On mindset for next stretch of SEC games…
“Nothing is going to change. We take it game-by-game, opponent-by-opponent, and we’re going to bring that fire. We know what we can do, we know what Kentucky football is. It’s really all about coming out early, offense and defense doing their jobs, they’re (defense) doing a great job getting stops, us getting movement at the o-line and we’re going to keep doing us. We ready.”
On Zy’Aire Hughes’ touchdown…
“Coming out the Wildcat we’ve got Terry coming in motion, I toss it to Terry. I’m the secure block, so I’m the safety guy. Terry tosses it to Zy (Zy’Aire Hughes), I seen him coming around and I was like bet, it’s on. I see a linebacker coming and I know the receiver takes care of the corner. It was good because the safeties were already beat and it was a one-on-one block with me and number six, I gave it to him. I see Zy’Aire (Hughes) has the speed, so I just knew it was money. He’s so fast and with the Wildcat we have in motion and I knew I was going to get that block too. I see Zy’Aire (Hughes) all the time in practice and he works his butt off every day and for that to be his first touchdown, it’s just so much more to come that you guys just haven’t seen.”
On the game next week…
“This is a good opponent. We’re not going to change any plans, everything is different. Defense has to get some stops and we’ve (offense) got to move the ball. They have a good defensive line up front, I know that for sure. So, our o-line is going to be in battle. We’re going to step it up, just like Florida; it’s a big game and we’re going to go into it like it’s a big game.”
#3, Terry Wilson, QB
On a comfortable win…
“It felt great. It starts off another week of preparation and I think we had a good attitude going into this game. We weren’t trying to play down to their level and continued to play how we play. I think we did a good job out there.”
On reverse to Zy’Aire (Hughes)…
“I knew it was going to be a touchdown. I was telling Fish (Zy’Aire Hughes) before the game, I said ‘I’m going to be down there celebrating with you.’ I was excited for my man to get that touchdown, that’s huge, so it was a very good thing for him. Benny (Snell) was talking to me like ‘Yeah that’s my touchdown Terry’ and I’m just like ‘You can have it’ it’s good man we scored, so I’m glad.”
On the 40-yard run…
“I’ve seen the safeties and everybody just dropped out and it was wide open, so I took it. My receivers did a great job on blocking for me, so I just made a cut and got to the end zone. I couldn’t have done it without them (receivers) and I’m proud of that.”
#50, Marquan McCall, Defensive Lineman
On the future of Kentucky’s defense getting to play this game …
“It felt amazing, I felt like we were all in high school again. It was fun. “
On his relationship with DeAndre Square…
“That’s my boy. We said when we came up here, we are going to ball out together and that’s what we’re doing. We’ve known each other since high school, he’s like my brother.”
On the upcoming Mississippi State game,
“I can’t wait. We’re waiting to see what they got and we know going forward what we have as a team. So I’m ready to see how they are going to play.”
On the defense in today’s game,
“Coach was saying don’t let up. It doesn’t matter what team, keep going and have the same intensity as last week and that’s exactly what we did in today’s game.”
#41, Josh Allen, Linebacker
On how the team approached this game after coming off the Florida win …
“After the Florida game, we’re moving on. It was a good team win but we have to move on to the next team. Just like this coming week, we’re going to watch film and then come back to practice Monday with a focus and edge to win game four.”
On the current depth of the team …
“All of us can play, we just have to continue to play together and as one. I feel like we’re working on that and we are getting a lot better this year. “
On seeing his teammates succeed in today’s game …
“I was really happy to see Zy’Aire (Hughes) get that touchdown. It was a good play. He told me he was going to make that play, so I had to hold that to him.”
Murray State Head Coach Mitch Stewart
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, we came up here for one purpose and that was to win. That’s what you do as a coach and as a team. The boys came up here with that purpose and I thought they fought tremendously well. The great thing for us right now is we’ve had some tough three weeks to start this season off. It kind of culminated in this week against a tough University of Kentucky football team. I’m going to tell you what, that’s quite a bunch they got out there on that football field. We came up short from our goal of why we came up here and why we traveled, but there was a lot of positives we can take away. There is some tremendous talent out there on that football team and we knew that coming into it. The great thing is, we’ve got a bye week right here next week where we can heal up and get our fresh legs back. Then we start our new season, we start conference play and we are very excited about that. We feel like we’re battle tested by these three weeks that we’ve had and we’re extremely excited. You can go in our locker room over there and I know those guys believe they played hard. I’m interested to see the tape. If the effort matched the tape I am interested to see that because I really do think the guys played with tremendous effort. I think the guys know and understand that. We are excited to get a week off, like I said, to heal up for this conference run that we’re about to get into.”
On Drew Anderson’s success in the first half…
“We had in our mind that we were going to go for six pretty much anytime we got down there. We were going to go for six, we weren’t going to settle for field goal points. We thought at that particular point of the game that we needed to get some points. We just needed a “feel good” at that particular point of the game to kind of end those drives and get some points on the board. I was extremely encouraged by the way we started out offensively in the first half. We were able to do some things like move the ball around, run the ball relatively well, and kind of move our offensive some. I thought we got the ball on perimeter well which opened some vertical run lanes for us. Like I said, in the second half we got out there. We kind of hit a lull offensively in the third quarter and defensively I thought we kind of just wore down a little bit in the second half. That happens a lot of times in these kind of games, you can get a little wore down. They start to run those 2s and 3s in and they still lean on you a little bit, but for the most part I was very encouraged by what I saw today.”
On urgency the team had in the first half…
“Like I said, our message to our football team hasn’t been different these three weeks. Football games boil down to two things, effort and enthusiasm. I thought we had both of those. We played with tremendous effort. I thought the guys were excited. It’s hard not to get excited when you play at a venue like this. This is a beautiful stadium that has a tremendous fan base. They put that music on and big speakers and you can feel it hitting your chest when the guys are dancing and all that it’s just a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun and our guys don’t get that a lot at this level. We don’t play in front of crowds like that. So, I thought for the most part they came out with great enthusiasm. They welcomed the fight and what the competition was going to be, and they ran around. They ran around until they couldn’t anymore.”
On biggest take away in non-conference leading into UT Martin…
“I’ll be honest with you, I think growth. If you look at this football team from week one to week three, each week everything that we’ve seen and are set out to do, we’ve done that. After the first week, we wanted to improve offensively. We wanted to improve on handling the football and not turning it over and we’ve done that now for two weeks. We got the second week in the rai, and this week against an SEC opponent, we’ve done that. We’ve been able to take care of the football, so we have improved in that area. Defensively we wanted to improve on some of the lineman things and we’ve done that for two weeks in a row. If you look over it over a span of three weeks, we’re improving. I think that, especially when you have a schedule like that, you open up those three weeks where you play a ranked opponent at your level and an SEC opponent sometimes it’s very hard to evaluate exactly where you are.”
Murray State Student-Athletes
#5, Jason Johnson, DB
On Murray’s effort against an opponent that upset Florida last week…
“We know that this right here is the SEC, so we came with a chip on our shoulder that we had to come out here and play ball. Hard ball, fast ball, play as a team.”
#22, Malik Honeycutt, WR
On how Murray played despite a hard fight…
“We gave a lot of effort, great effort, we just did not finish.”
